Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Shubho Nobo Borsho

Puzzled?? Not if you are Bong. It took me years to get my tongue around those words. Even now I trip over them if I am not careful. Today marks a brand 'New Year' for several communities in India, and Spring is definitely in the air. But it is only the Bongs who send long, poetic text messages to greet friends on this special day. Like the one I received at dawn from my khaas bondhu in Kolkata, the darling Jayabrato Chatterjee - a real bhadralok if I've ever met one, and a loving friend. He wrote , " It takes the same amount of time of time to pluck a flower for worship as it does to explode a bomb to destroy." This was but a small part of his greeting!! I thought to myself, only sensitive Bongs can combine such thoughts with an occasion that heralds new beginnings. I love Jayabrato and his family. We go back years and years, and always have the best time when we meet, whether in Mumbai or Kolkata. I am off to Ahemedabad on friday. Not sure how exactly I am supposed to shape those young minds, but I shall do my best. The lecture is at the IIM -A, and the divine Amjad Ali Khan will be addressing the students right before I do. That's a tough act to follow! I'm hoping to catch Mallika Sarabhai during my short stay in her city. I was appalled to hear Manmohan Singh advising voters to shun independent candidates since they'll eat into the votes of the other, party -affiliated persons. Mumbai seems to have jerked itself out of its customary stupor to some extent this time - people actually show up at the 'Meet the Candidate' gatherings in various snob localities. This is an excellent new development and gives me hope that there will be a good turnout on 30th April. Meanwhile, Amma ( Jayalalithaa) has said calmly and cleverly, " A good politician rules out nothing." Looks like Behenji (Mayawati) will need to hire a new speech writer now!

33 comments:

More parties, more confusion. More candidates, more division of votes. Better to follow 2party system where the mandate is definite and compromises will be less. Vajpayeeji danced to Amma's tunes and left desperately tried that trick on Manmohanji.

"I was appalled to hear Manmohan Singh advising voters to shun independent candidates since they'll eat into the votes of the other, party " He is right, in the sense that after elections, these independents become dependent on the money bags and become horsetrading components:)

saw an interesting thing while surfing on facebook: the director of the last james bond film (marc forster) is doing a new film project. but why was he in MUMBAI? (the pic of the boardingpass ist on http://tobiashorka.ch/. unfortunately it's written in german.

Ahmedabad is not Mallika or Gandhiji. The show is run by hardnosed gujarati businessmen and women and who have somebody in US, UK and other countries. They want good business, good food and their personal gurus. They are passionate about the Narmada Dam, shopping and religious functions. They are practical, very practical. They are defensive about the gujarat riots, defensive about Modi and they feel misunderstood by others. They are also the friendliest.

Shubho Nobo Borsho Shobha ji.... anek anke Subhechha....hope we get poetic justice at the end of the elctions...really. Meanwhile, do your best to inspire students at Ahmedabad to recognise & vote for the right candidates...Mishti, Payesh, & Sondesh...may there be enough for all of us... Cheers

How independents can become spoilers?Usually independents like Meera and Mallika are secular. Congress also profess to be secular. The secular people who otherwise would have voted for the Congress candidates have now a choice. When the seular votes get divided among the Congress, SP, independents, naturally BJP or MNS may win. It may happen or it may not happen. It is also like film releases. Lagaan and Gadar Ek Premkatha released on the same date. In electoral terms, Gadar was a clear winner. As for criminals, none of the parties including the CPM are free of criminal elements. In this respect, independents like Meera and Mallika are free of criminal elements. If Salman or Sanjay wants to campaign for these ladies, can they say no? If they can say no, it is very good but if they ignore or keep quiet, it may tell us about competitive politics.

Amjad Ali Khan... what a delicious man. I want to steal every one of his shawls! Seriously if there was a sartorial award given to the best ethnic (and otherwise) dressed man in India, this man would win every year. Perfect eye candy! That he is a world renowned talent is more than icing on the cake. Sigh!

Enjoy your time in Ahmedabad. You are going to be busy, busy... speaking engagements, observing the political machinations and what not. I cannot wait to read about your observations of what goes on there. Gujrat is a test case for so many phenomenons that will spread to the rest of India pretty soon. I think the election battles there are very, very significant.

Can you expect the "caretaker prime minister" in Sadi Dilli to say anything other than don’t vote for independents? He is taking care that he continues to remain caretaker till the "rightful heir" comes of age!

Lucky IIM A people getting celeb lecturers all the time.They are but, the creme de la creme that floats out to seek global prosperity while the rest of the competitive exam aspirants( the majority)aspires to do "management" but wont ever think of alternative career options for which they're better suited.

Shubho Nobo Borsho. Love the bengali language and it's mithhas. I am so thrilled to know about all these different new years within India. Maharashtrians recently celebrated Gudhi-padwa, I think Tamilians celebrated it yesterday. It's all so cool.

IIM-A trip sounds fun. Get us some insider stories abt. IIM A talent. I mean how they see shaping the country's future, economy, recession everything. Indian MBA entrance exams are much tougher than GMAT (that's what we have to give in US) and I always had lots of appreciation for these top B school talent in the country. Would be very interested to hear abt. their views. And of course give us a sneak peak of "gujarat-no darpan". Hope you get to taste Undhiu. My all time favorite gujju dish :)

"attacking outsiders" ?? I never mentioned that, anywayz......should never happen in a civilized world. But hey,.......I am sure you have thought about why we are having to deal with all this in the first place .....!!! right ??? If only people are a bit prudent and sensitive towards the original inhabitants.

I have been witness to a lot of bitching about my city. They thrust their elitist wave upon us, as though we have migrated to make a living...hahahahaha.....to think of it..!!!!!! wowwwww........how morally denigrated can people be shobhaa ??

Being a bong, it's a stark difference having to celebrate it in Mumbai rather than in Kolkata. However, being born and brought up in Aamchi Mumbai, I've barely experienced it as a part of a pure Kolkata-nibashi. But for the times that I have, it's always an experience.

Even with that, all I can say is Aamar Shonar Bangla, aami tomai bhalo baashi!

Ahmedabad is my home town - I hope you enjoy your stay there and also your talk at IIM-A! I love the campus - I used to live very close to the campus and spent a lot of my evenings with IIM students :) Feeling nostalgic!

I'm happy that I found your blog. Will follow you from now onwards. You are an ideal to me... you have always been. I Love you for all that you have written. And I'm very happy to have been here today.

That is the beauty of India. We have tongue twisting languages and dialects, mouth watering dishes from all over and a basic sense of Indianness all over. The locals may try to humiliate and terrorise the outsiders, but the outsiders' contribution to a city's growth like that of Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata is no less. The remedy for monstrous growth lies in stopping construction all new buildings and enterprises and strict enforcement of no more slums, no more pavement dwellers, no more beggars. Indian people first try to live on pavements, then move to slums, supplementing their unemployment periods with part time begging. Some of our biggest stars slept on pavements and then moved into palatial bungalows. Those who worship Stalin and Hitler must be aware of concentration camps and Siberian prisons which were used not only against Others but also for the dissenters from their own.

I am sorry i lost you on the walk last evening Shobha ,This link is for you! you had wanted to hear her talk with locals on a one to one....cheersthis is from viraj with the Queen Mary's connection if you remember me!:-)

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